26 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS. 



district of St. Saviour's parish in Southwark, called 

 Paris Garden, which contained two Bear-gardens, 

 said to have been the first that were made near 

 London. In these, according to Stow, were scaffolds 

 for the spectators to stand upon an indulgence for 

 which they paid in the following manner : " Those 

 who go to Paris Garden, the Belle Sauvage, or 

 Theatre, to behold Bear-baiting, interludes, or fence 

 play, must not account of any pleasant spectacle 

 unless they first pay one pennie at the gate, another 

 at the entrie of the scaffold, and a third for quiet 

 standing."* The time usually chosen for the ex- 

 hibition of these national barbarisms, which were 

 sufficiently disgraceful without this additional re- 

 proach, was the after-part of the Sabbath Day. One 

 Sunday afternoon in January, 1583, the scaffold 

 being overcrowded with spectators, fell down during 

 the performance, and a great number of persons 

 were killed or maimed by the accident, which the 

 Puritans of the time failed not to attribute to a 

 Divine judgment.t 



Erasmus, who visited England in the time of 

 Henry VIII. , says there were many herds of Bears 

 maintained in this country for the purpose of baiting. 

 When Queen Mary visited her sister the Princess 

 Elizabeth, during her confinement at Hatfield House, 

 a grand exhibition of Bear-baiting took place for 



* See also Strutt's " Sports and Pastimes." 



f See Field, "A Godly Exhortation by occasion of the late Judgment 

 of God shewed at Paris Garden. 13 January, 1583, upon divers Persons 

 whereof some were killed, and many hurt at a Bear-bating," &c. 

 I2mo, Lond. 1583. 



